This is the 1st of several (not sure how many) posts in normal life in Shenyang, China covering various topics as I get inspired to write about them.
As usual it has been longer than I would like for a blog post update. I guess it's my "new normal". When I look back on my previous blog posts, I'm sure that many of you have the impression that all we do is travel around Asia on vacation! Well, I can tell you it's not quite like that! Yes, we have been able to travel and see many new/strange/exciting/boring/disgusting (you fill in your adjective of choice) sights and sounds and experiences. Those experiences however special are not our Normal life! Like you all, we work for a living and like you, we don't take pictures of everything in our "normal life" and post them for all to see! I have to admit with cameras on or cellphones, I do take many more pictures now than ever before and I do post some "normal life" experiences on Facebook.
This blog post is the first of what I will call "normal life" here in Shenyang (if I dare to say any part of life is normal, no matter where we live!)
I'm not really sure how to start, and I'm not sure there will be a rhyme or reason...so with that said, here goes!
Traffic in Shenyang
It seems here, I spend a lot of time in the car traveling back and forth to work. We live right down town Shenyang, and the factory is in a industrial park in out outside edge of Shenyang. Depending on the time of day I start the journey, it can take anywhere from 35 minutes to 1h30m to get to and from. Traffic can be horrendous. The discipline of following stop signs and stop lights has improved over the past 6 years we've lived here, but still very "go with the flow" oriented and not so much "follow the rules". There is a reason we have professional drivers here for 2 main reasons the way I figure : 1) If/when there is an accident, it will always be the westerner's fault..no matter what, and westerner will have to pay. We don't know all the rules, we won't be able to follow the logic, and therefore plead a case, and we have no connections to make the equivalent of a "plea bargain" outside or inside the court. 2) As a western driver, our brain uses the rules we were taught, especially to look before entering the main road and to yield etc. These rules do not work here..if we were driving, I would never get anywhere...I would be waiting until I had sufficient space to merge...and here someone else would see their space to merge is much less than mine...and I would be stuck! Better to sit in the back seat, look at something, but certainly not the distance between my window and the bus right beside me I could touch easily with my hand just slightly extended, or the person on the bicycle that just pulls out into the main road without looking and expects everyone else to squeeze around them without hitting them! Whew..makes me take a deep breath just writing about it! There are no good photos to describe traffic or photos...everything just looks like stopped cars...so you can imagine for yourself! The good news is that all cars have tires...and when they have to replace them, I hope it's with Michelin tires made in China, made for China!
Company dinners/going away parties
As we have been here in Shenyang for over 6 years, as I've lead a project to built and plant with the help of several expats like myself, we have seen our share of people coming to and going from Shenyang. In addition the local staff have been in their positions for several years and they are now starting to change positions. Lately, I've been to more and more "going away" parties. We started the tradition to honor the service and contributions that people have had in their positions by hosting a going away dinner. We have many toasts in their honor and also find some small gifts for them to take to their next position in the company as a momento of their time with their current team. We also honor the new person arriving to the team so that they can start to understand the culture working with their new teammates. Of course, it's not only the comings and goings..we also do team building events...but that is another entry! Some are funny, some are sentimental and I believe all are appreciated. As the plant manager, I go to many of these types of meals/ parties. I usually give the opening and closing toasts and a small speech in the middle which highlights the persons company history and some stories about my personal connection to the honoree, then we open it up to others to share their funny or appreciation story about the honoree. And of course the honoree is expected to give a small speech. If they are leaving the site we give them a photo of the plant with people's notes of well wishes written in the matting, and usually a simple scrap book of photos collected during their work and sometimes a small gift. These are a very special event for the person team, so it takes some preparation. Every time I do one of these, I get all of the emotions about my own departure some day...honestly I do not look forward to it..it will be a very emotional day/week/month for us. So that's not today..that's in the future!
There are too many, so there's no I way, I will capture all of my friends parties I have attended/presided over, so I just show a few or my recent ones here.
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| The teachers of the French School just before it closed |
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| Francois Esnault departure, going to France |
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| Hao Weiguo leaving Shenyang and going to Shanghai |
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| Wang Xingwei retirement |
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| Zhang Wei retirement party |
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| A three way going away party for Antoine going back to France, Hao Yixing, going to Shanghai and Stefan going to Japan...Michelin is truly a multi-national company!, |
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| Guido going back to Germany |
So that is enough for post 1 of "normal life" Shenyang part 1! To be continued as we trudge our path to happy destiny here in Shenyang!
Rod and Sarah
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